Category: Pork

I try my best to be positive. Sometimes it’s really hard to stay focused and positive…and staying positive alone can be just exhausting. What I struggle with is I get put in a mind set of “no one wants to help make your life easier”…and honestly that isn’t true. I learned this today. I was so mad today. I’m planning an event and I feel SO alone. I feel like no matter what I do, it’s just me against the world. I was reminded by four simple words I’m not. I have two “best friends” and today I was on Facebook with one of them and I was venting about my frustration. I told her I didn’t care if it got done or not, because I knew I couldn’t enjoy it, because I’ll be the ONLY one running around for it. She is quiet a minute, which i knew was because she was hiding her phone under her desk trying to be quiet….it’s funny, because I totally can picture her looking around all suspicious like. Anyway it took 4 simple words…”What can I do?”….

God is going to make things work out. I know it. However, it’s giving me a lot of stress and honestly, making me want to reconsider the amount of my volunteer work. I’m just not sure if I can continue going the path I’m going. It’s always a few of the same people helping out. I think there needs to be some new guidelines set up to make it work. For now, I’m going to try to count my blessings and chow down on these ribs. Good ol’ comfort!

Bone in country ribs, or boneless ribs works fine

1 cup BBQ Sauce of choice, plus more for finishing

1/2 cup water

Mix all together in crock pot. Should be enough to cover ribs at least halfway up. If you need more, just mix more bbq in. Once you do cook for 6-8 hours on low. I like to remove some liquid afterwards and put in more bbq when it has about 30 minutes left to cook.

Free Tastes Good had this meal posted a while back. I saved it and just never made it. Tonight is the perfect time to make it. We have a class to catch up on. We have to physically be there today. After tomorrow we should be 100% done. I’m pretty happy about this. It’s been weeks and weeks of classes. I feel like I rarely get to see my kid on class days. It’s very well worth it in the long run, but I find it so incredibly difficult to sit during all of those classes. We ended up missing like 2 or 3 classes in a row, because the last 3 weeks someone in our house has been sick. It’s been some kind of crazy viral thing. We just couldn’t seem to shake it. After we get finished in our make up day, we have scouts. It will probably be almost 8pm before we get home. I figure I’ll throw this in the crockpot and we’ll be ready to go once we get home. The best part about this is I can freeze some for later if I need to.

6 or 7 potatoes cut into 1/4 in slices

1 can cream of potato or cream of chicken soup

1 can of water

1/2 of a small ham

8 oz cheddar cheese

1 cups broccoli

salt and pepper

There are two ways you can do this:

Mix everything into a crockpot. Cook on low for 8 hours.

Freezer meal: Double your recipe and get more food meals prepared. If you decide to freeze this, you need to blanch your broccoli and your potatoes. You will also need to unthaw over night before you throw it in the crockpot.

I have a lot of stuff going on lately. I’ve been really scared that I’d lose some blogging time. I can only be limited in information that I release, due to confidentiality. Hubby and I are in the process of trying to adopt a child. I can’t wait until this finalizes. It’s a girl and she’s older, but still in elementary school. We’ve also been completing our foster parenting classes and we’re pretty much done now. We’re just waiting for our certification. How fun is that? I’ve worked with kids for a long time in many different capacities. This is something that I’ve really been wanting to do. I even more so wanted to do it after we had our nephew living here with us. I wont lie that I was heartbroken when he moved out, but I feel it was worth it. If I could do things over again I would, but I think maybe I’d do things a little bit differently. Overall though we took a person and helped that person to be better. It may not have ended exactly how I’d have imagined, but he finished high school and that in itself is a huge accomplishment in my book. It takes one person to impact a life. One gesture can change everything.

Pretty much anyone and everyone knows I’m not a fan of pork. I still will eat it, but it has to be a really well cooked piece of meat. Funny thing about this is, I probably sound like a broken record to ya’ll. I’m positive I said these things before. I suppose it’s just a way to be a reminder that if I post something like this, chances are I really liked it. For this recipe I ended up needing to change it up, because it was just so plain Jane. It turned out good though.

At some point a few months ago we decided that we didn’t want to pay almost 200.00 for cable. I think that I had mentioned this a while back. So far I have not missed it. It’s been good for our family. We’re no longer paying 200.00 to watch 5 shows. It’s insane. We bought Hulu and Netflix. We’ve been really happy with it. We also have CBS. I was thinking about this a lot lately and I think its been the best move our family has made. We have more money in our pockets…and there is a choice. We decide what we spend our money on and we’re not dictated by a bill. It’s fantastic.

We’ve really been working hard on our step to financial freedom. We’re taking steps to make this happen and I’m happy with how far we’ve made it so far!

4 pork chops

freshly ground black pepper and salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1/2 teaspoon dried sage

1/8 teaspoon cayenne powder

Olive Oil

Mix together dry ingredients, except salt and pepper. Pat dry pork chops. rub with olive oil. Sprinkle the dry rub over pork. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Put the oil in a frying pan and brown both sides. Finish cooking in the oven until to temperature. Enjoy Ya’ll!

Every once in a while I decide I need a grilled cheese. However, I wanted something more than a piece of cheese on a piece of bread. Earlier in the day I had seen something on Pinterest with someone using brisket. My mother in law had made some pork the night before. I thought that we could give it a try with the pork she had made. We put just a little bit of bbq sauce in it (My mother in law’s idea! Good thinking!!). We loved it. It was so good. It’s super simple to make too. It’s filling.

Bread

BBQ Pork

Monterey Cheese

Butter

Spread butter on both slices of bread. Put one slice of bread down in a pan. Add a piece of cheese, then pork, then another piece of cheese and put the bread butter side out on top. When cheese on the bottom is melted and the bread is browned gently flip over and grill until all the cheese is melted and the bread is grilled.

I’ve said it 100 times…I’m not a huge pork fan. I actually found this recipe fantastic. I’d say you could omit the cayenne all together if you like zero heat. I had tried this recipe several times from the one I have wrote in my little recipe box. The original calls for 1/4 teaspoon, which is insane. I used less than 1/8 and it was still spicy the first time I made it. Now a dash is the perfect amount, unless you omit it all together.

I have to say…we made the leap. We ditched cable. No longer are we tied to paying 203.00 for cable and internet. We’re literally saving 100.00 a month. I am so thrilled by this. This is all that has been in my day. It’s been pretty crazy. I’ve worked to get everything set up. It’s done, cable is cancelled…I’m thrilled. So far the New Year is panning out great.

2-4 pork chops

salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1/2 teaspoon dried sage

dash of cayenne

Mix everything but the salt and pepper together. Season with salt and pepper on both sides. Take seasoning and thoroughly season on both sides of the pork. Put oil in a frying pan and brown both sides of the pork chops. Put in oven until fully cooked at 350 degrees.

My thermometer konked out. Instead of starting at 0, it now starts at 80. I had to throw it out. I adore my thermometer. It’s used pretty much all the time in this house. Now this means I have to go find another one. That’s alright, it happens; right? I don’t make these pork chops a lot for multiple reasons. First they’re fried. I tend not to eat a ton of fried foods. At least that’s what the goal is. The other reasons aren’t so important though.

My mother used to make these when I was a kid. Usually we use the bone in when they’re made at my house, but mom always used boneless. She was always particular about her meat cuts. She never wants to deal with bones, skin, fat. It grosses her out so much. It makes me giggle a little bit. To be honest, I’ve tried to cook chicken on the bone and whole chickens, but I’m always fearful that they are raw. It just never turns out good. I never had that issue though with bone in pork. I don’t know why one is so much easier than the other to cook.

1/2 cup all purpose flour

salt and pepper to taste

(Yes, it’s that simple!) mix together and bread the pork. Put oil and butter in a frying pan. Place pork in pan and fry until browned on both sides. I always use my thermometer to double check the temperature of the pork. Yum.